OK.
I held onto this thing for 30 years and it was blank.
I’m admittedly a little annoyed about having to re-write my journal entry this morning. A couple of weeks ago I came across a very reasonably priced - recapped Apple Macintosh Classic II computer. In my home office, I have a number of boxes that contain random things but one thing I’ve held onto for years is a 3.25” Floppy Disc that I seem to recall purchasing my senior year of high school. I didn’t label it for one reason or another, but have managed to never lose in the numerous moves I’ve made in my lifetime. I was certain that the disc would have some old papers, HyperCard work or some digital journal entries I may have penned as a teen. In my mind, I would eventually get the stuff off the disk and my opportunity finally came to fruition this week.
I inserted the disk and discovered it wasn’t formatted for a Macintosh computer. This meant I probably formatted the disc for a PC and it dates back to my freshman year of College. I secured a disk drive by way of amazon, loaded the thing onto a PC and discovered the disc was empty. I’ve been holding onto a translucent disc for nearly 30 years thinking it was a artifact with something sentimental on it.
What I can tell you is that the disc works without issue. I formatted the disc and used it to potentially transfer a journal entry I wrote on the Classic II. Quickly learned that OS X hasn’t supported these files or disc reading since 2006. I am the proud owner of a relic that runs System 7 that has a reliable disk drive I can’t transfer data to and from without utilizing some of its local network functions that I’m not going to fully explore.
But I digress. The Journal Entry that I’m not going to fully re-write this morning was an exploration for the affection I had for the Mac Classic II. In Junior High, the school I went to had a computer lab that was filled with these things. Twice a week, we would be collectively gathered to get some reps on computers. When I got to high school, the Science Academy of South Texas was fully stacked with Macs for my entire tenure. They were aware that lots of the kids didn’t have computers at home in the early 90s so they had a program where you could check one of these things out at our school library. At the end of the day, you would show up and get one of these things in a portable looking backpack that looked a lot like a YETI cooler.
I vividly remember visiting a Mac Reseller in Harlingen Texas in the early 90s and visiting the store with my parents. They admittedly blushed at the price point and we made our way down to Service Merchandise to purchase an IBM PC that ran Windows 3.1 & DOS.
I wouldn’t own my first Mac until I got to college…. I wouldn’t own a Mac Classic II until I nearly turned 50. Vintage computing may seem cool, but I liken it to taking in stray cats. I would highly advise that you don’t do it.
